Continuous Access to Cultural Heritage (CATCH)

Continuous Access to Cultural Heritage (CATCH)
A computer science research programme for continuous access to cultural heritage

Line of action	:	Science for society
Part of NWO Theme	:	RISCC (previously Creative Industry)
Secretariat	:	EW
Participants	:	GW
Apply	:	No, a new round is (still) uncertain

Objective

The CATCH programme is aimed at innovation: the application of excellent research, steered by the heritage sector, enables this sector to innovate and to develop new services and products. The programme is also aimed at collaboration between research and heritage institutions, but in addition between the heritage institutions themselves, so that physically diverse sources can be presented to the user as a coherent entity. And finally, the programme is directed towards the communication and transfer of the techniques developed, on the one hand from within the cultural heritage domain of the institutions participating in CATCH to all other relevant bodies and on the other hand from the CATCH community to other socially and economically involved parties.

Hallmarks of this 2010 round are a multidisciplinary approach and integration of the knowledge utilisation in the research. Multidisciplinary teams in which humanities researchers collaborate work jointly with heritage institutions and computer science researchers can allow themselves to be inspired by the following types of question. What is the role of the ever-increasing amount of digital sources in humanities research? Can new questions be posed on the basis of this? Can new links be made and what will be the result of these, especially for the heritage institutions? How can collaboration between researchers in computer science and the humanities meet the needs of heritage institutions with respect to information technology innovations? What is the significance of digital heritage sources for the public and for researchers?

The integration of knowledge utilisation (valorisation) in this round offers the researcher the opportunity to translate scientific results into practical tools and services for everyday use. The user is pivotal in this.

Application
Who can apply

Full proposals may be submitted only by researchers who have been invited to do so after their previously submitted preliminary proposal.�

What can be applied for

CATCH grants aim at augmenting research carried out by a multidisciplinary research team in which expertise from the fields of cultural heritage, computer science and the humanities is represented. The team comprises personnel from one or more research institutions and personnel from one or more cultural heritage institutions. The total amount of grant for one project is 655.853 Euro. The intention is that the grant be used to hire new personnel for the realisation of the project, namely one four-year appointment of a PhD-student (aio), one three-year appointment of a postdoc researcher and one four-year appointment of a programmer. Instead of the PhD-student or postdoc researcher, a grant can be requested to enable an expert of a cultural heritage institution to spend over a period of three or four years at least 40% and at most 80% of his/her working hours on research falling under the awarded project. This person will be seconded to a research group for part of his/her time.

The project grant further covers:

• a personal bench fee of 2 x € 5.000 for the PhD-student (aio) and the postdoc (or the cultural heritage expert: see above), as a supplement to cover national or international travel expenses and the printing costs of a thesis.
• an equipment credit of € 5.000 for the purchase of computer facilities
• a standard amount of € 10.000 to cover the expenses of team members’ travel between the research groups and heritage institution(s) concerned and participation in international conferences.

The amount of the grant for personnel is set in accordance with the prevailing NWO-VSNU agreement.

When can be applied

• Closing date for the submission of preliminary proposals was 16 December 2010, 12:00 hrs (noon)
• Closing date for the submission of full proposals�was 28 March 2011, 12:00 hrs (noon)

Selection
Criteria

See�call for proposals.

Procedure

The 2010 round comprises two stages:

Pre-proposal

The pre-proposal is mandatory for applicants wishing to be considered for the full proposal stage. Pre–proposals are summarized research applications. Pre-proposals must be submitted to the CATCH Programme secretariat in accordance with the guidelines in Appendix 1 of the call for proposals.

Full proposal

Within five weeks of the deadline, the assessment committee will select a maximum of twelve pre-proposals to be worked out in detail in a full proposal. Applicants will be notified as to whether or not they should submit a full proposal. Full proposals must be submitted to the CATCH Programme secretariat in accordance with the guidelines in Appendix 2 of the call for proposals.

Committees

See www.nwo.nl/catch, under organisation.

Additional information
Budget

3�million euros for this round.

Financiers

NWO Divisions for Physical Sciences and Humanities

Contacts

• Ms drs. R. (Rosemarie) van der Veen
  phone: +31 (0)70 - 344 08 51, e-mail: r.vanderveen@nwo.nl

Documentation

Continuous Access to Cultural Heritage (CATCH) programme text
This document (PDF, 75 pages) contains the programme text of Continuous Access To Cultural Heritage (CATCH).
Open
Continuous Access To Cultural Heritage (CATCH) call for proposals
This document (PDF, 21 pages) contains the call for proposals for the CATCH subsidy round 2010 (version 4 February 2011).
Open

last modified on 29 March 2011